The Art of Writing & Speaking the English Language Part 14

"I also sometimes jumbled my collection of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order before I began to form the full sentences and complete the subject. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of the thoughts. By comparing my work with the original, I discovered my faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying, that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been fortunate enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think that I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer; of which I was extremely ambitious.

My time for these exercises and for reading was at night, after work, or before it began in the morning, or on Sundays, when I contrived to be in the printing-house alone, evading as much as I could the common attendance on public worship which my father used to exact of me when I was under his care, and which indeed I still continued to consider a duty, though I could not, as it seemed to me, afford time to practise it."

A Practical Method.

Aristotle's method, though perfect in theory, has failed in practice.

Franklin's method is too elementary and undeveloped to be of general use. Taking Aristotle's method (represented by our standard textbooks on rhetoric) as our guide, let us develop Franklin's method into a system as varied and complete as Aristotle's. We shall then have a method at the same time practical and scholarly.

We have studied the art of writing words correctly (spelling) and writing sentences correctly (grammar).* Now we wish to learn to write sentences, paragraphs, and entire compositions _effectively_.

*See the earlier volume$ in this series.

First, we must form the habit of observing the meanings and values of words, the structure of sentences, of paragraphs, and of entire compositions as we read standard literature?just as we have been trying to form the habit of observing the spelling of words, and the logical relationships of words in sentences. In order that we may know what to look for in our observation we must a.n.a.lyse a _little,_ but we will not imagine that we shall learn to do a thing by endless talk about doing it.

Second, we will practise in the imitation of selections from master writers, in every case fixing our attention on the rhetorical element each particular writer best ill.u.s.trates. This imitation will be continued until we have mastered the subject toward which we are especially directing our attention, and all the subjects which go to the making of an accomplished writer.

Third, we will finally make independent compositions for ourselves with a view to studying and expressing the stock of ideas which we have to express. This will involve a study of the people on whom we wish to impress our ideas, and require that we constantly test the results of our work to see what the actual effect on the mind of our audience is.

Let us now begin our work.

CHAPTER I.

DICTION.

"Diction" is derived from the Latin _dictio,_ a word, and in rhetoric it denotes choice of words. In the study of grammar we have learned that all words have logical relationships in sentences, and in some cases certain forms to agree with particular relationships. We have also taken note of "idioms," in which words are used with peculiar values.

On the subject of Idiom Arlo Bates in his book "On Writing English" has some very forcible remarks. Says he, "An idiom is the personal?if the word may be allowed?the personal idiosyncrasy of a language.

It is a method of speech wherein the genius of the race making the language shows itself as differing from that of all other peoples.

What style is to the man, that is idiom to the race. It is the crystalization in verbal forms of peculiarities of race temperament?

perhaps even of race eccentricities ...... English which is not idiomatic becomes at once formal and lifeless, as if the tongue were already dead and its remains embalmed in those honorable sepulchres, the philological dictionaries. On the other hand, English which goes too far, and fails of a delicate distinction between what is really and essentially idiomatic and what is colloquial, becomes at once vulgar and utterly wanting in that subtle quality of dignity for which there is no better term than _distinction_."*

*As examples of idioms Mr. Bates gives the following: A ten-foot (instead of ten-feet) pole; the use of the "flat adverb" or adjective form in such expressions as "speak loud." "walk fast," "the sun shines hot," "drink deep;" and the use of prepositions adverbially at the end of a sentence, as in "Where are you going to?" "The subject which I spoke to you about," etc.

We therefore see that idiom is not only a thing to justify, but something to strive for with all our might. The use of it gives character to our selection of words, and better than anything else ill.u.s.trates what we should be looking for in forming our habit of observing the meanings and uses of words as we read.

Another thing we ought to note in our study of words is the _suggestion_ which many words carry with them in addition to their obvious meaning.

For instance, consider what a world of ideas the mere name of Lincoln or Washington or Franklin or Napoleon or Christ calls up. On their face they are but names of men, or possibly sometimes of places; but we cannot utter the name of Lincoln without thinking of the whole terrible struggle of our Civil War; the name of Washington, without thinking of n.o.bility, patriotism, and self-sacrifice in a pure and great man; Napoleon, without thinking of ambition and blood; of Christ, without lifting our eyes to the sky in an att.i.tude of worship and thanksgiving to G.o.d. So common words carry with them a world of suggested thought.

The word _drunk_ calls up a picture horrid and disgusting; _violet_ suggests blueness, sweetness, and innocence; _oak_ suggests st.u.r.dy courage and strength; _love_ suggests all that is dear in the histories of our own lives. Just what will be suggested depends largely on the person who hears the word, and in thinking of suggestion we must reflect also on the minds of the persons to whom we speak.

The best practical exercise for the enlargement of one's vocabulary is translating, or writing verses. Franklin commends verse-writing, but it is hardly mechanical enough to be of value in all cases. At the same time, many people are not in a position to translate from a foreign language; and even if they were, the danger of acquiring foreign idioms and strange uses of words is so great as to offset the positive gain.

But we can easily exercise ourselves in translating one kind of English into another, as poetry into prose, or an antique style into modern.

To do this the constant use of the English dictionary will be necessary, and incidentally we shall learn a great deal about words.

As an example of this method of study, we subjoin a series of notes on the pa.s.sage quoted from Franklin in the last chapter. In our study we constantly ask ourselves, "Does this use of the word sound perfectly natural?" At every point we appeal to our _instinct,_ and in time come to trust it to a very great extent. We even train it. To train our instinct for words is the first great object of our study.

Notes on Franklin.

(See "How Franklin Learned to Write" in preceding chapter.)

1. "The female s.e.x" includes animals as well as human beings, and in modern times we say simply "women," though when Franklin wrote "the female s.e.x" was considered an elegant phrase.

2. Note that "their" refers to the collective noun "s.e.x."

3. If we confine the possessive case to persons we would not say "for dispute's sake," and indeed "for the sake of dispute"

is just as good, if not better, in other respects.

4. "Ready plenty" is antique usage for "ready abundance." Which is the stronger?

5. "Reasons" in the phrase "strength of his reasons" is a simple and forcible subst.i.tute for "arguments."

6. "Copied fair" shows an idiomatic use of an adjective form which perhaps can be justified, but the combination has given way in these days to "made a fair copy of."

7. Observe that Franklin uses "pointing" for _punctuation,_ and "printing-house" for _printing-office_.

8. The old idiom "endeavor at improvement" has been changed to _endeavor to improve,_ or _endeavor to make improvement_.

9. Note how the use of the word _sentiment_ has changed. We would be more likely to say _ideas_ in a connection like this.

10. For "laid them by," say _laid them away_.

11. For "laid me under ...... necessity" we might say _compelled me,_ or _made it necessary that I should_.

12. "Amended" is not so common now as _corrected_.

13. For "evading" (attendance at public worship) we should now say _avoiding_. We "evade" more subtle things than attendance at church.

There are many other slight differences in the use of words which the student will observe. It would be an excellent exercise to write out, not only this pa.s.sage, but a number of others from the Autobiography, in the most perfect of simple modern English.

We may also take a modern writer like Kipling and translate his style into simple, yet attractive and good prose; and the same process may be applied to any of the selections in this book, simply trying to find equivalent and if possible equally good words to express the same ideas, or slight variations of the same ideas. Robinson Crusoe, Bacon's Essays, and Pilgrim's Progress are excellent books to translate into modern prose. The chief thing is to do the work slowly and thoughtfully.

CHAPTER II.

FIGURES OF SPEECH.

It is not an easy thing to pa.s.s from the logical precision of grammar to the vague suggestiveness of words that call up whole troops of ideas not contained in the simple idea for which a word stands. Specific idioms are themselves at variance with grammar and logic, and the grammarians are forever fighting them; but when we go into the vague realm of poetic style, the logical mind is lost at once. And yet it is more important to use words pregnant with meaning than to be strictly grammatical.

We must reduce grammar to an instinct that will guard us against being contradictory or crude in our construction of sentences, and then we shall make that instinct harmonize with all the other instincts which a successful writer must have. When grammar is treated (as we have tried to treat it) as "logical instinct," then there can be no conflict with other instincts.

The suggestiveness of words finds its specific embodiment in the so called "figures of speech." We must examine them a little, because when we come to such an expression as "The kettle boils" after a few lessons in tracing logical connections, we are likely to say without hesitation that we have found an error, an absurdity.

On its face it is an absurdity to say "The kettle boils" when we mean "The water in the kettle boils." But reflection will show us that we have merely condensed our words a little. Many idioms are curious condensations, and many figures of speech may be explained as natural and easy condensations. We have already seen such a condensation in "more complete" for "more nearly complete."

The following definitions and ill.u.s.trations are for reference. We do not need to know the names of any of these figures in order to use them, and it is altogether probable that learning to name and a.n.a.lyse them will to some extent make us too self-conscious to use them at all.

At the same time, they will help us to explain things that otherwise might puzzle us in our study.

1. Simile. The simplest figure of speech is the _simile_. It is nothing more or less than a direct comparison by the use of such words as _like_ and _as_.

Examples: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. How often would I have gathered my children together, as a hen doth gather her broodunder her wings! The Kingdom of G.o.d is like a grain of mustard seed, is like leaven hidden in three measures of meal. Their lives glide on like rivers that water the woodland. Mercy droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.